In an era where women are still struggling to be recognized and paid for their leadership skills, it is a frustrating message that one's best shot at elevating her status is to wait patiently for opportunity to appear. Rather than sitting around waiting for a Fairy Godmother to magically deliver your next promotion, here are five movie-inspired steps you can take to prove you are a capable leader and elevate your status at work.

Once upon a time, you decided to take a few months away from your career to spend time with your new baby, or tend to a sick relative, or start your own business. Perhaps those months turned into years and you now find yourself wanting to return to the workforce. Don't despair. By following the six steps below, you can take control of the back-to-work process and will restart your career in no time.

In case you have not noticed, there is a growing trend of women's empowerment organizations springing up everywhere that are geared to helping professional women achieve success and fulfillment. With so many popping up, it makes me wonder: are career women that hungry and in need of support groups to empower themselves?

I am not saying that we should not strive to be the very best people and professionals we can be. This is not a call to "lean out." By all means, let's strive to be amazing, but let's also aspire to be more gentle with ourselves and with others.

The new ad campaign for Aerie, a lounge wear and lingerie brand owned by American Eagle Outfitters and targeted to young women, has pledged not to use retouching tools such as Photoshop in the company's advertising. Its ads show beautiful women with a few extra pounds and rounder stomachs, smaller or bigger breasts, laugh lines and visible tattoos.

Some days I feel that I've succeeded in my work. Some days I feel that I've succeeded as a parent, or a spouse, or a friend, or a daughter. But I rarely feel as though I've succeeded on all fronts in the same 24-hour period. Do I have work-life balance?

The Lean In zeitgeist says individual women can take personal responsibility for failure and act to achieve success. Meanwhile, recent research says there is an unconscious bias in corporate Canada that prevents equally qualified women from attaining the same level of success as men. The Lean In school is decidedly wrong. In short, both men and women need to lean in to create equity in business. It's the only way to achieve balance.

It was my choice to go back to work six weeks after having my second child and I won't lie, this week was tough. That being said, I awoke each morning delighted to start the day, hit the ground running and engage in my life's work. I figure if nothing else, being excited to head to work is an important metric in my quest to design a tailored life.

A recent article in The Atlantic suggested a more "realistic" approach for women juggling motherhood and career: Have just one child. But I would hate for a woman to think that having just one child is the key to successfully juggling motherhood and career. The real threat to what we want in life is TIME.

It's possible that women are underrepresented in boardrooms because they are more likely to decide that they don't want to be there. Women should be able to define success in a more nuanced way than society does without being written off as brainwashed dupes.

Like many other 30-something women, I've started reading the latest treaty for the working gal, Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In. I'm now among the ranks of those who admire Sandberg's ability to leave the office on time and her gutsiness in contributing to a much-needed discussion on how North American's can better balance work and life so both men and women are better equipped to take on leadership roles if they want to.
One area where this discussion is sorely needed is politics, an arena that Sandberg -- an advisor to former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers -- largely ignores in her book.

Feminism is about equality and choices. And the unfortunate facts are that women who want to be successful must decide whether to have a family if they are ambitious and, if they do, how to juggle both. Both Thatcher and Merkel had husbands who encouraged and supported them.